Michael Jordan had rivalries of various sorts with many players over the course of his illustrious career. His toughest opponent, however, was probably someone who prowled the touchline rather than playing on the court.
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Pat Riley is considered by many basketball fans to be perhaps the greatest NBA coach of all time. While his championship count pales in front of the likes of Phil Jackson, his impact is undeniable.
When Riley coached the Lakers, they were the most entertaining team in the league. ‘Showtime’ is what they were called, after all. And much of the credit for their attractive brand of play has to go to their head coach.
After coaching the Lakers for 9 seasons, in which he won 4 championships, Riley then went to the New York Knicks. He reinvented himself as the coach of a defense-first team – the Knicks presented the strongest physical challenges to Jordan’s Bulls during their championship run.
Riley then went to the Miami Heat, where he integrated the talents of Tim Hardaway Sr, Glen Rice and Alonzo Mourning admirably. He finally led the Dwyane Wade–Shaq combo to their 2006 NBA championship.
Riley is exclusively a front-office member now, but his impact on the league is undeniable.
Michael Jordan revealed his pet peeve with Pat Riley in his Hall of Fame speech
Michael Jordan ruffled a lot of feathers with his Hall of Fame speech in 2009. Many believed that the speech revealed the a**hole side of his persona too brazenly to the world.
However, most fans concur in believing that it was just Jordan being himself and venting his true feelings about everyone and everything. The bit of his speech about his friendly rivalry with Pat Riley reveals as much:
“Any time I played against you, you had Jordan-stoppers on the team. You had John Starks, who I loved. Even had my friend Charles Oakley saying we can’t go to lunch or dinner because Pat doesn’t believe in fraternizing between the 2 of us.”
“And this guy hit me harder than anybody else in the league and he was my best friend. Patrick Ewing, we had the same agent, we came at the same time, but we couldn’t go to lunch?”
“Why is this, you think I’m going to play against Patrick any differently than I play against anybody else? No, no!”
The history between Michael Jordan and Pat Riley’s faceoffs
Jordan and Riley faced each other in 3 consecutive playoff series between the Bulls and the Knicks. The Bulls won all 3 of those series, with only their Conference Semifinals in 1992 going for 7 games.
They then faced each other a 4th time during the 1997 Eastern Conference Finals. Riley’s Heat team lost the series 4-1, with Jordan predictably playing a huge role in it.
